


how can saplings bloom when covered deep in snow?

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [140]
Category: DCU Animated, Under the Red Hood
Genre: Gen, Growing Up, Past Child Abuse, Rape/Non-con References, References to Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason may have been young, once, but he was never a kid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	how can saplings bloom when covered deep in snow?

**Author's Note:**

> Title: how can saplings bloom when covered deep in snow?  
> Fandom: Batman: Under the Red Hood  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Bertold Brecht  
> Warnings: implied child abuse/non-con  
> Pairings: none  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 235  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: DCU, Jason Todd + Alfred Pennyworth, Jason was never a kid. Only Alfred ever seemed to realize that.

Sometimes Jason wakes up shaking in the middle of the night, sure the door just opened and he'll feel the bed dip any moment now.

Those mornings are always the worst, because he never can get back to sleep. It was better at Wayne Manor, though, because there he had Alfred.

Alfred, who always had muffins and cocoa on those mornings, and who chatted with Jason about TV shows neither of them watched and the college major Jason would probably never choose and the dog Bruce wouldn't let them get.

Alfred didn't talk down to Jason like he was a kid. Alfred didn't complain about Jason's shortcomings and how he wasn't as good as the sainted Dick Grayson at _anything_ and that he needed to rein it back before he made a mistake so awful - well, it'd be awful.

Alfred trusted Jason. So Jason trusted Alfred right back.

But there is no Alfred here. Jason's alone in a penthouse, under a fake name. He doesn't trust anyone in this city... not even Alfred, really, not anymore.

He wishes, sometimes, that he'd gotten that childhood, because he's so lonely, now.

And on those nights, on those mornings, he wishes he could sneak into the Manor, for Alfred's muffins and cocoa, but instead he curls up in his bed and pretends he's happy, with a city fearing him and an ex-mentor trying to bring him down.


End file.
